yep dawg, your pics bring back memories of when I first go to Los and built meself my own two story gaff near the beach.. being fresh in from civilization and a builder by profession.. once my workers started on the elevated formwork .. I started getting a bit frantic (and terrified by an eventual lawsuit) imagining one of the poor blokes falling off the scaffolding (if we are allowed to call -scaffolding- a few bamboo poles tied together by plastic string) .. so I approached my foreman and asked what would happen if one of the workers came tumbling down. The good fellow, without skipping a beat, said: " we'll just replace him with somebody else " WTF

heres another favourite,the vicious nasty bstard angle grinder, I really have know idea how many workers i have taken to hospital for injuries from one of these beasties, now the first thing thais are taught about these is to take the safety guard off, now obviously the company who built this spent thousands upon thousands developing this safety guard, i have quite a collection of them, everytime i buy a new grinder i get a free safety guard to keep in the tool cabinet, these are all in brand new condition if anybody is interested

Now here is a nice picture, this chap has his ladder, which he obviously built himself out of some old scraps of wood resting on sukimvit road, but do note that he is wearing a safety helmet and safety flip flops

heres another favourite,the vicious nasty bstard angle grinder, I really have know idea how many workers i have taken to hospital for injuries from one of these beasties, now the first thing thais are taught about these is to take the safety guard off, now obviously the company who built this spent thousands upon thousands developing this safety guard, i have quite a collection of them, everytime i buy a new grinder i get a free safety guard to keep in the tool cabinet, these are all in brand new condition if anybody is interested

Worker seemed to take off the guard even in the states since it's easier for them to cut a notch in a tile or marble saddle. However, I would want to be that worker if on false move was made.

Building Regs? If you mean do you have to submit plans, I think it depends where you live. You seem to be able to get away with a lot more upcountry compared to 'organised' cities like Bangkok and Pattaya. Perhaps DD can comment on whether a building inspector actaully comes round to sign off those pier column footings that are supposed to be a meter deep.

In Jan 2005 a seven story building collapsed in Bangkok when a fire broke out - the top three stories had been added illegally. A subsequent government inspection of other building revealed that 3000 were in grave danger of collapse.

I saw one such five story building in Asoke earlier this year where the ground had sunk to such an extent that in several cases the ground floor support columns had torn away from the beams they were supposed to be holding up.

Building inspectors rarely visit a site, the main reason they will visit is if you try to use smaller rebar and stuff like that and they know they can get a backhander out of you

Without a standard building code, how do they determine the size of rebars? Besides, you can use smaller rebars in lieu of larger ones if it's configure properly with addition rebars within reinforce concrete to same required strength.

Without a standard building code, how do they determine the size of rebars? Besides, you can use smaller rebars in lieu of larger ones if it's configure properly with addition rebars within reinforce concrete to same required strength.

You've really got to stop thinking like this when discussing issues in Asia. Basically, they'll do whatever is necessary to make as much money in as short a time as possible. If that means little or no rebar, then so be it. If it means selling their daughters, then so be it....

You've really got to stop thinking like this when discussing issues in Asia. Basically, they'll do whatever is necessary to make as much money in as short a time as possible. If that means little or no rebar, then so be it. If it means selling their daughters, then so be it....

You are right when you put it that way. There are no logic in what people in LOS do. Other parts of the Asia such as Korea and Japan, have building codes and set of standards.

Things are better in Korea now, but they still have the occasional bridge or shopping mall collapse because of skimping on construction.

Well, that can happen almost anywhere where contractors cut corners and inspectors overlook the obvious problems. It happen in the states, happen in Israel, it happen in Canada... Many times than not, it's design properly but during construction, plans and specifications weren't implemented.

Perhaps, I'm bias when it comes to construction since I put into factor of safety to assure structructural stability even with contractor cutting minor corners. However, if contractor don't but moment connection as per engineer, there is no guarantee since factor safety only 1.5. However, it's general practice to put 3.0 to 3.5 factor of safety for earth work since it's not an exact science.